


I can still feel your arms

by Imnotweirdjustwriting



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, M/M, Past Donny/Michael, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 09:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14691519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imnotweirdjustwriting/pseuds/Imnotweirdjustwriting
Summary: Donny kisses Julia and for a moment he’s back on the battlefield with Michael





	I can still feel your arms

**Author's Note:**

> Title from ‘Last Kiss’ by Taylor Swift

The first time Donny kisses Julia he’s back on the battlefield. Lips are pressed against his but Donny doesn’t know if they’re Julia’s or Michael’s. He knows the hand cupping his jaw so gently-like he’s glass-it’s smooth and uncalloused and untouched by war. 

Donny pulls back but he’s still there, crouched in a trench with Michael, breathing hard as panic runs cold through his blood. Michael holds his face in his hands, his mouth moving but no words coming out. Donny knows what he’s saying anyways, always knows what Michael is saying, always knows what Michael is doing and where he is-

No. No he’d made that mistake once and he’d lost Michael. He didn’t know anything. He didn’t know where he was. 

“Donny,” Julia’s voice says and her lips are on his again. Donny’s sure it’s Michael’s hands on his waist, steady and warm and alive, alive despite everything, but then the hands shift and it’s Julia tucking his hair back, Julia touching his cheek and his jaw as she kisses him like Michael kissed him. 

Donny is sure now that he’s crying. He’s sure Julia has noticed too because her gentle fingers brush against his cheeks, wiping tears away before they fall. 

Donny reaches for her hand without really meaning to, kissing her harder to try and push Michael from his mind. Julia’s hand is so small in his, nothing like the huge rough hands that Michael would touch him so gently with. 

“Donny,” Julia says again, but for some reason Donny hears Michael, hears him but doesn’t feel him anymore. He doesn’t know if Michael said Donny or if he called him Nova, like he used to when they were back on those damn islands choking on war. 

Donny opens his eyes and he’s with Julia. There’s no rain, there’s no mud or smoke or Michael. Just Julia. 

“I know,” she says so softly, her hand laying still on Donny’s chest as it rises and falls twice as fast as it should. “I miss him too.”

Donny feels himself choke on a sob, letting Julia pull him closer and hold him as he shakes as hard as he did in the foxhole. 

Julia’s hands move slowly over his back, comforting and entirely her own as Donny cries. He keeps going until his throat feels raw and his head is pounding as loud as the bombs that struck the shore, but he’s done with war right now. He’s with Julia, gentle sweet and kind Julia who is home now and nothing like what he left. 

He’s home.


End file.
